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Using users.local to specify an alternative root directory

Using the rootdir option in the users.local file, you can set an alternative root directory and limit the directory hierarchy to which the RSCD agent has access on a UNIX platform. The rootdir option is equivalent to the chroot option of a UNIX operating system. When you set the rootdir option, the RSCD agent changes the file system root to the directory that you specify.

For example, if rootdir is set to /tmp (that is, rootdir=/tmp), the RSCD agent sets its file system root to /tmp, and from this point onwards all operations are performed with respect to /tmp.

As a result of the change in the file system root, the RSCD agent expects all required objects to be located in the new root specified by the rootdir option, rather than in the default / root. This impacts the following central features in BMC Server Automation:

  • Live Browse: To enable the use of the Live Browse feature, you must set up a file system hierarchy under the new root similar to the file system hierarchy found under the default / root. This enables the RSCD agent to load the DAAL-related shared objects and the related system shared objects necessary for executing Live Browse requests. If the required objects are not in place, the Live Browse view displays empty results.

    On a Linux system, a live browse of system information is also dependent on the /proc file system, and this file system must appear in the new file system root. You can use the mount command to achieve this.
  • Remote command execution: To ensure that all commands specified in the remote_cmds file execute properly, the OS commands and their related system shared objects hierarchy must be found under the new root directory. To achieve this, you can either copy files or mount directories onto the new root directory. Information

    The date command is dependent on the following shared objects:

    • librt.so.1 => /lib/tls/librt.so.1 (0x006ce000)
    • libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0x00b34000)
    • libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/libpthread.so.0 (0x00f04000)
    • /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x00c87000)

    If rootdir=/tmp, the date executable and its dependencies (listed above) are searched with respect to /tmp as the root, and not /. For the date command to work, you must ensure that /bin/date, /lib/tls/librt.so.1, /lib/tls/libc.so.6, /lib/tls/libpthread.so.0, and /lib/ld-linux.so.2 are located in /tmp.
    You can either selectively copy these files into the respective directories or mount the /lib and /bin onto /tmp/bin and /tmp/lib.

Warning

Notes

  • When the rootdir option is no longer required, you can undo the corresponding setup by deleting the copied directories and un-mounting the mounted file systems or directories in the file system root.
  • The rootdir option is not supported on Windows platform and can only be used on Linux and UNIX platforms.

 

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BMC Server Automation 8.3